//------------------------------// // 9) The Chase // Story: Silent Artemis // by Hokusai3211 //------------------------------// Rainbow was having probably the best dream she had ever experienced. Deep in rem sleep she was having the time of her life and even as it was happening she knew she was going to remember it even in the waking world, and the best part about it, it had only just begun.  Which made the next moment all the crueller. The knocking sound came like a lightning bolt directly into the room. Despite the physics, the knocking sound resonated throughout the household clouds and somehow directly into Rainbow ears, causing the slumbering mare to snarl, which quickly formed into a loudly yelp as she plummeted from her bed.  Groaning, as she sprawled she groaned loudly, untangling herself from her sheets with great effort before slurring out a garbled, “What the-?” The knocking grew in intensity, as she blinked up at the door leading towards the hallway, one eye closed, refusing to admit defeat and relinquish it losing battle to return to the waking world. She rubbed it open and glared up at her clock and couldn’t quite understand what she was looking at.  Somehow she had been transported to a mythical dimension, some horrific nightmare realm of eternal punishment, unknown to her brain that based on the clock appeared to be called four am. “No,” she said slowly, “no-no-no he wouldn’t.” She protested, shaking her head, but the rattling of her door couldn’t be anything else but them. “I said morning, this ain’t morning, it can’t be, it’s still dark outside!” She pleaded loudly to the room, but it was clear from the knocking that no pony was listening.  She lifted herself up onto her hooves, shaky and protesting about being used, knowing that they were owed at least another five to seven hours of sleep, she rubbed her eyes again and looked back at the bed.  It was empty and for once she was more than a little thankful for it. If nothing else, because she didn’t exactly want to explain to a pony why at four am, she was about to answer the door to what was no doubt at least two very big and very stoic Royal Guards. With barely enough willpower and energy to stand she lifted herself up by her wings, the only muscle strong enough to bear this demonic spawn of a time zone and opened the door as if in a trance.  The figures in front of her, guards of course, stood waiting at each side of the door frame, like they were expecting Rainbow to bolt from one side or the other. Which, to be fair, she had done before, but that was almost a week ago, and who even remembered that far back anyway? Rainbow eyed them both with a barely concealed contempt, as they nodded to her in a stiff greeting. Then one of them, the older of the two by at least ten years, spoke with a clipped voice, “She’s ready for you at the hospital.” “Can’t she wait for a minute, at least until I’ve had a coffee or something dude, this is like a crime against nature! Don’t you guys ever sleep?” Rainbow groaned, her voice horse and generally unready for whatever this was. “Orders were to get you at the crack of dawn, ma’am, that’s morning to the guard.” The younger and decidedly, at least to Rainbow, more gentile one said in a softer tone. Rainbow wanted to slam her clock up into the guard's grill and let him know exactly when morning began, but thought better of it.  Perhaps it was the lack of sleep talking or the dejected feeling that this might now be her life for the next however many weeks, months, years? But something in her mind spoke and as typical of the loud mouth tenacity of the mare it went through no filter before it hit her tongue.  “Is this even working, I mean, what am I even going to be doing different today?” She asked. “That and all those other pieces of information are classified, Ma’am.” The harsher older Guardsman barked before the other could interject.  Rainbow cocked her head to the side, “What, you can’t even tell me anything, it’s been a week, how am I supposed to keep winging it like this?” “Well the lieutenant seems happier than he has been in a long time." The younger guard said, smiling warmly, "in fact, come to think of it, I overheard the others say the captain came all the way down to the Lieutenant's office to talk about you specifically, and he never leaves his office, that’s gotta be a good thing right?” He asked, looking up to the venerable one for acknowledgement, when clearly he didn’t feel like giving it. “Bronze Brash!” the older stallion snapped,  “what part of ‘is classified’ don’t you understand, that means not to discuss classified information in front of random mares on the street, you know basic guard one-o-one!”  "Who're you callin' a random mare?" Rainbow snapped. “Sorry sir, but we have to tell her something right?”  Rainbow raised her brow at the two of them, totally too tired for her usual sass but in the back of her mind she did perk up somewhat at the mention of her being talked about by both Checkers and this Captain stallion, who she had never seen or even met before.  But obviously that was about to change right? “Oh sure,” the older stallion continued his voice taking on a more sardonic tone, “what next, why don’t you also tell her about the bug-ponies or about the two thousand year old god in the statue garden?”  “Bug-ponies?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head to the side, but was resoundingly ignored. The older guard sighed, looking back at Rainbow he held out his hooves as if to pacify a quickly escalating situation he had hoped would just be peaceful.  “Listen Ma’am, we’re going to be late, you need to get there before anypony sees you, that’s all I’m willing to divulge, so can we please go, you're here now, so I’ll take that as a confirmation to your acquiesce?”  “Acquie-what now?” Said Rainbow puzzled.  “Do you agree?” Growled the older guard pony, apparently tired of the conversation.  “Geez, is this guy always this rude?” Rainbow faux whispered to the left guard.  The younger guard smiled apologetically to Rainbow, but  his eyes flickering back to the older senior guard who was all but grinding his teeth at the mare “We just got off a sixteen hour guard shift ma’am, and ten hours ago was his son’s birthday.” The smaller guard explained softly.  “His first birthday.” The larger one snarled, rubbing the rings around his eyes.  Rainbows eyes, if they weren't open before, were now up and at attention now as she stuttered through what to say next, “Oh eh well, look at it this way, he ain’t even gonna remember it anyway right?” Rainbow joked, suddenly feeling more than a little embarrassed for complaining about her tiredness as she faked a smile back at the apparent father who was having none of it. “O-okay then.” Rainbow quickly added, tiptoeing around the disgruntled growling father. Rainbow looked around, sure as all hell she was missing something, but couldn’t quite put her hoof on what it was, until she noticed all around her somepony was missing, “Hey um, where's that other chick, you know the one with those thick black sunglasses she’s always wearing?”  “Sergeant Night Light?” The younger stallion asked,  “Yeah, her,” Rainbow said slowly, eyes narrowing, “where is she, that creep trying to scare me again, because it ain’t gonna work this time.” Rainbow said aloud, looking around the open black sky on her porch for the mare, but she was nowhere in sight. The younger guard next to them turned and looked at, the belated unhappy father who simply shrugged, obviously more pressing things occupied his mind than his ranking officer as he continued to give Rainbow a sullen sunken look. “Uh, the Sargent didn’t show up this morning, we actually had to go ourselves.” The younger said finally, when he was sure that he wasn’t about to be told off again. “Their kind’s never there when you need them, always there when you don’t.” the older stallion grumbled.  Rainbow raised her brow at that, their kind? She wanted to ask, but the younger guard had already moved forward, uneasy smile splashed on his face. “Anyway, daylight's burning Mrs.”  Rainbow looked around at the still pitch black sky, the very traces of light coming from the east showing more of a yellow and grey in sky that was very much still night time. Daylight wasn’t burning, so much as smouldering weakly.  Rainbow could feel in her bones that this was going to be a very long day. Rainbow landed in her usual spot a little shakier than she had meant, but  to give a mare her do, she had practically flown with her eyes closed, a very dangerous thing to do. She was a stiff proponent of not flying drunk or tired; her father and uncle had pressed that into her at an early age. But the guards hadn’t even given her enough time to rub the sleep from her eye, let alone eat something or more importantly grab a cup of coffee.  It was a miracle she didn’t land on the roof face first, with half the roof tiling's of Ponyville dragging behind her tail. If anything, Rainbow without a cup of coffee in the morning was the equivalent of loading a fire hose up and forgetting to attach it to a water hydrant. All you really had was a heavy weight that ponies could trip on.  And she certainly embodied that metaphor, as she nearly tripped over half a dozen nurses and doctors, just going around the unending corners of this labyrinthian maze they called Ponyville hospital.  If she knew what it meant to wake up when the guards did, she certainly wouldn’t have gone to Roses bar last night, or earlier today considering what time she had gotten up, as she stared bitterly outside the passing windows, just barely able to see the sun rising up over the horizon.  In all honesty though, nothing was going to stop her going. It had been a whole week since she had any sort of fun, well fun in the normal sense anyway. After all she was still young and had every intention of causing the usual ruckus she had planned with her friends.  But for whatever reason, that night, she just hadn’t felt up to it, didn’t have the same mojo in her like she normally did, when she planned a night of ‘bloody sodding debauchery,’ as Rosey herself might have called it, in that strange southern islander accent she had.  She had barely touched a drink all night and talked even less. In fact, if anything she had spent more time telling ponies she was fine and that she wasn’t ill, just tired so please stop saying I am for ponies sake, can’t a mare just sit back and relax for a change. In the end, she had gone home alone and gotten an early night, for once in her life. Well, it had been midnight when she actually got into bed, but that was early to a mare like Rainbow.  The way things had gone, she probably would have been better off if she had just called off the whole thing and went to see Fluttershy instead.  That brought a guilty pang into her chest, she still had yet to see her, in all this time, she had just been so busy.  Busy thinking of yourself more like, how many times have you seen her after her little accident? A voice in her head unhelpfully piped up. Rainbow bit her lip. She knew it was right, but it was too early to think like that, she would go today, she would definitely go see her today., maybe stop by Pinkies and pick up some lunch for her as well.  Maybe after a nap at least. Another voice added, and she couldn't help but agree with that one too. Not that it mattered, if last night was any indication she would just be tossing and turning in bed again. Her mind constantly reminding her of the last few moments with She. The fleeting image of the creature, staring worriedly out the window or worse the look on Checkers face when she had asked him if She would be allowed to leave. What had been wrong with her? She was just a weather pony, he was the expert after all, what had possessed her to ask that? It wasn’t like she was going to demand he let her go,  what was she the princess of Equestria or the captain of the Wonderbolts already?  She certainly acted like she was.  Rainbow sighed as she turned another corner of the hospital. Already familiar enough with it that she could walk it in her sleep, she was practically doing so at that very moment. She always did have a good internal compass, she just wished she could shut off her moral one sometimes. Especially when it got her to say silly foalish things like that to somepony like Checkers.  But the creature had looked so unhappy at that moment, so unnerved, and something about that look, those eyes, that pinkish white face downturned and shaken had nagged at Rainbow and made it impossible to think of anypony else all night.  She didn’t like that look on her, that forlorn look. Something about it  just didn’t seem right on a creature like She, and despite telling herself otherwise, she would have rather seen her with that irritating mocking smile instead.  Rainbow laughed bitterly, what was she going soft on the creature that had tormented her for the past week? Getting all mussy now, getting attached? Rainbow shook her head, she wasn’t attached to anypony, and never would be. That just wasn’t her, never had been, heck it was the reason she had never had a marefriend. Too slow, too frail and too finite, that was the problem with ponies, and everything really, everything in life all boiled down to that, didn’t it?  Rainbow sighed again, she was doing a lot of that recently, far too much of it she thought. But then again maybe that was just a sign of growing up, her uncle seemed to do it a hell of a lot, seemed to almost enjoy doing it almost. That and smoking, which she wished he wouldn’t, but try telling somepony that stubborn not to do something.  Rainbow turned another corner of the main artery of the hospital. It was still as busy as it had been a few hours ago when she had left it. Did these ponies ever sleep? She didn’t remember the hospitals being this busy when she was visiting her mom, but then again, that wasn’t a hospital was it? A hospital is where ponies went to get better. Her mother had been in a hospice.  The thought soured her already darkening mood, she hated that self pitying junk, she needed to snap out of it, she had a job to do after all, ponies were counting on her.  Maybe she was just being too soft. After all, she had been the one that the creature, no sorry She was torturing after all, playing with Rainbow, saying stupid things to get under her skin.  If she just told me what was wrong, then it’d all be solved, so why won’t she? Rainbow thought, but that seemed to be like asking a dog why it barked, she wasn’t going to get an answer other than it just does. Like that story of the scorpion and the fish… no wait was it a newt or something?  Never mind, I know what I mean, too early for smart stuff. Still the very fact that She was making it so difficult on everypony was making her more aggravated. Rainbow at this point would have just been satisfied if She had just told her why she couldn’t say anything…Even a name, she was getting sick of all this She nonsense! None of that matters, don’t care if she never gives me her name, so long as I get her talkin’ eyes on the prize Rainbow, that recommendation is all you’re here for, it’s the whole reason you’re doin’ this. Just remember that! “Todays the day,” she muttered to herself, “today I’m gonna get you to spill it all.” She paused for a moment, wondering why they had stopped, until she looked up and realised that they were already at the creature's door; she had made it without even looking up once.  “You have the clearance ma’am.” One guard said, nodding at her. “You need a second before you enter ma’am?” Another guard spoke, looking down at Rainbow Dash.  Rainbow chewed the inside of her lip, A second, I’d like a flipping year and a crack team of investigators and some truth serum… wait does that actually exist? Nah prolly not, Checkers would have used that already, need to ask him that next time, maybe he just forgot.  ...Oh wait he asked us a question, I think we waited too long, he’s just lookin’ at us funny now. Remember, cloudsdale stadium, Wonderbolt, you got this kid!  “Nah, I think I’m good.” She spoke in confidence, Arching her back as though she was stretching for a race of a physical feat.  “Today’s the day,” she muttered again to herself, “even if it kills me.”  Rainbow stepped inside, looking around she saw nothing, but that wasn’t too much of a surprise. The room was pitch black, it always was, but somehow it was darker than it had been. Perhaps she considered that unlike those times she had visited before, the sun was rising and not setting and the light had yet to even peak over the woods beyond the window.  In fact at the moment, the only light came from the eerie red incandescent glowing of the machines dotted around the room. That’s weird, wasn’t there a lamp glowin' on her bed side table? She thought for a moment, but then again, perhaps it had been turned off by the night staff.  Turning Rainbow fumbled around the wall for a light switch, “You okay if I turn this on?” She spoke to the room aloud, waiting for a response before slapping her forehead with a hoof. “Right sorry, I swear I’ll get used to the no talking thing eventually.” She said to the room as a whole, chuckling lightly, more out of embarrassment than because anything was actually funny. Fumbling her hoof higher, she finally found the pesky switch and flicked it up. The effect was like staring into the sun and Rainbow eyes burned at the sight, orange blurs scorched her retinas as she fumbled to turn it off almost instantly. “Gah geez! Now I get why you like it dark.” She said, rubbing her eyes. Feeling the reactionary tears from the burning unnatural light she rubbed her eyelids and paused when she heard a rustling coming from the other side of the room, right by the window, her ears flickered up towards it for a second, but the irritation in her eyes took most of her attention.  “Sorry, just let me get to that lamp at the side of your bed and I'll turn this friggin thing off agai-” She said  flicking the light on and shielding her eyes, she took a step forward, world blurry from the obnoxiousness of the light, she made it almost across the room when she tripped on something and stumbled onto her chest.  She managed to right herself before she could really do some damage a looked back.  It was the lamp, twisted and broken and with the bulb inside smashed out.  Rainbow stared at it, confused as to how in the world it had gotten right in the middle of the room. before she lifted her head back up and suddenly another more pressing question sprang to the forefront of her mind. Why was the bed empty? For a moment after that, the silence was deafening and it felt like the whole world was in on it, the bird stopped chirping, the trees ceased their endless dancing tussle with one another outside and stood motionless, the voices inside the hospital echoes father and father away and even Rainbows own beating heart stopped a moment, before beating so fast she thought it might burst out of her chest.  Consternation gripped her as she darted her head around the room, worry came a close second as she thought about the danger she was in, suddenly picturing the creature, standing at its full height. It didn’t seem quite so mischievous and frustrating now, as she pictured it, towering over that innocently mocking smile taking a more sinister shadow on her unusual face. But then just as she was about to back away towards the door she caught flickering in her eye. Her first instinct was to imagine it was the curtains of the hospital window. But  then her mind suddenly, unhelpfully started to ask itself why the window was open at all, in fact it had been closed every day, apart from last night.  Curiosity took over instinct to flee, or perhaps the two merged into an unhelpful concoction of both, as she turned toward it and caught bright blue eyes staring back at her, its owner's expression mirroring Rainbows rather nicely. She was standing by the window, no, not standing, straddling the open windowsill, One leg inside the other half hanging outside of the four story building her body hunched to crawl through when it had apparently turned to look at whoever it was that had entered. Turned and caught none other than the mare who seemed to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, turned to look Rainbow right in the eyes.  “How the hay did you?” Rainbow whispered, as she dared to look at the straps of the bed, which were now hanging limply off the sides of the bed frame.  She got her answer as her eyes quickly darted back to the creature, who had shaken the look of pure horror from her face and had somehow found her impish smirk again, as she held up a half snapped pencil and danced it back and forth across her claw knuckles. Rainbow recognised it almost instantly, as her mind darted as fast as her wings might have, as the coin finally dropped and she realised why the creature had acted so differently that day. “Clever girl.” Rainbow whispered in some perverse sense of admiration, as she tried to back away further only for her backside to hit the wall. Having no place else to go, her eyes were trained on the instrument in She’s hands, wondering if she could do that to thick straps on a bed. What could she do to me? Rainbow jolted slightly when she heard what sounded like a pained groan coming from across the room, changing a glance with the flick of her eyes she caught a wobbling figure rise up from the other side of the bed, holding its head in it’s hooves before collapsing back onto the floor.  At first glance Rainbow thought she saw black fur, but could have been mistaken, when she saw a pair of thick black cracked sunglasses on the floor across the room she knew for certain she was mistaken.  No, prolly not little Miss Jump Scare, wrong fur colour, prolly some other poor idiot… and prolly I'm the next poor idiot. She thought her throat was going dry as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Rainbow eyes darted back to the creature's, who had taken that moment to let her own eyes wander. Rainbow caught those blue icicles twitching back to hers, but had seen where they had been looking.  The only place that they could have been looking out the four floor window. Rainbow shook her head deliberately and couldn't help but vocalise a, “Nah-ah, don’t you dare..” in a warning tone almost as if she was scolding a pet threatening to rip up her homework. She had no idea where the sudden bravery to say these things was coming from, perhaps adrenaline mixed with fear itself? But she took a step forward despite the sinking pit in her stomach.  But the threat only made the impish smile of the girl grow more viper-like as she edged closer and closer out the window, her straddled leg and whatever was the end of it moving further and further out of view and over the edge.  “I’m warning you!” Rainbow roared, an edge of her own to her voice, but She’s only response, as always was to deepen her smile, as she always seemed to do. Then without a moment of warning she blew a kiss to Rainbow, turned her back towards the window and flew backwards into the open air. Gasping, Rainbow's wings reacted before she could even think and within a second she was out the window flying towards the falling creature. Thanks in large part to all her years of practice she was able to catch the falling creature, before she even reached the second floor. Grabbing onto her hospital gown she pulled the creature upward with all her strength, somewhat surprised by how light she was considering how heavy she had been before.  “Are you out of your sun damned mind!” Rainbow yelled, as she pulled the collar and by extension the creature up to meet her face. The creature opened her eyes, somewhat confused, looked down and then back up at her now second time saviour. Rainbow hadn’t exactly been expecting a thank you from the creature, which was why she was taken by complete and utter surprise when without warning or prognostications, She leaned in and kissed Rainbow on the lips. Rainbow flinched, startled by the sudden embrace, and closed her eyes out of pure instinct. Before sanity kicked back into her mind. Rainbow drew her head backwards blinking, despite everything in that moment she felt a warm pit in her stomach, betrayed by her own body as she felt warmth touching her cheeks and turning them red and the odd taste of peaches on her lips.  Snapping herself out of it she lifted the gown in her hooves back with a snarl, only to realise that it was now far far lighter than it had been a moment ago and also empty. She starred in both amazement, then in horror as she looked through the collar gap at the falling creature. Who as though she had done this a thousand times landed on the ground with a graceful roll of her body, before bolting up into a sprint and darted off into the distance.  Rainbow somehow managed to catch her open jaw before it did the same as the creature as she tried to flap her wings to follow. But instead of the open wind on her skin, she felt a tug of pain and resistance on her legs.  She gasped and looked down at whatever was yanking her back. She let out another gasp as she looked back at what was stopping her and then she noticed that somehow the hospital gown ropes that had been used to tie the back flaps together were now tied neatly into a bow around a pipe on the outside of the hospital wall with her legs in between. “How in the Celestias’ horseapples?” She roared through gritted teeth as she fought to untangle herself from the gown. Gritting her teeth she looked up again and nearly balked at the sight of the creature, pale and pinkish from head to toe shrinking from view as she made for the treeline with a speed that shocked Rainbow.  For something that moved on only two legs, she was fast, surprisingly fast as she came to the swift conclusion that those orbs on her chest didn’t seem to get in the way one bit.  But not faster than Rainbow was, and the creature was going to learn that fact pretty quickly. “Oh, you think it’s gonna’ be that easy.” Rainbow growled, grinding her teeth together as she finally did away with the hospital gown. “You wanna do this the hard way, fine!” She spoke softly, chuckling darkly as all the frustration, the anger the plain old fear started to seep out of her. Above her she heard the door to the room slam open, shouts and curses rang above her head and somewhere somepony screamed at her, but Rainbow wasn't listening. Finally she was going to meet She on a level playing field, let the creature know what she was capable of as she flew upwards into the sky.  She had been playing in the world of other ponies up until this point, talk and diplomacy and all the other minutiae that she didn’t altogether like or care for. But now the creature was challenging her to what Rainbow did best, and Rainbow was quite happy to show her just how good she was.  Lifting herself up just enough so that she could see the entirety of Ponyville and the Everfree forest stretched before her, that the creature was rapidly vanishing into, Rainbow snapped her wings shut falling backwards towards the ground before with a  prismatic rainbow tail, she arched just before the ground hit her and darted darted towards the woods. It would be a long time before she would hit that type of speed again, but when she did she would break the sound barrier, but that’s a different story. She sailed forward, dust shooting up all around her into a miniature storm of it's own. Despite herself, despite everything, she was laughing as the distant pink figure was coming closer and closer to her even now. “It’s on now!”